Adolescence

FOCUS ONInequality in childhood and adolescence in rich countries –Innocenti Report Card 9: The children left behindIn comparison with those in the rest of the world, children in the wealthiestcountries enjoy a very high standard of living – but not all benefit equallyfrom the relative prosperity of their nations.Over the past decade, the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre’s Report Cardseries on child well-being in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment (OECD) countries has emphasized the importance of measuringthe well-being of children in industrialized countries. The latest in the series,Report Card 9, asks, How far behind are the least advantaged children beingallowed to fall?Analysing three dimensions of the lives of adolescents – material wellbeing,education and health – the report ranks 24 OECD countries accordingto how successfully they practice the ‘no child left behind’ ethos. Denmark,Finland, the Netherlands andSwitzerland appear at the top of the“Poverty andleague table, while Greece, Italy anddisadvantagethe United States are shown to havethe highest levels of inequality forin childhoodchildren.are closely andconsistentlyassociated withmany practical costsand consequences.”The cost of inequalityBy measuring economicallyadvanced countries against oneanother, the Report Card creates ameaningful comparison, revealingthe real potential for improvementto reach the standards of otherOECD countries.Allowing a child to suffer avoidable setbacks in the most formative stagesof development is a breach of the most basic principle of the Convention onthe Rights of the Child – that every child has a right to develop to his or herfull potential.According to the report, poverty and disadvantage in childhood arealso closely and consistently associated with many practical costs andconsequences. These include poorer health outcomes, including a greaterprobability of low birthweight, obesity, diabetes, chronic asthma, anaemiaand cardiovascular disease. Early disadvantage is linked to inadequatenutrition and compromised physical development as well as impairedcognitive and linguistic progress.The least advantaged children are also more likely to experience foodinsecurity and parental stress (including lack of parental time), and to havehigher allostatic loads due to recurrent stress. Further on in life, there is agreater probability of behavioural difficulties, lower skills and aspirations,lower levels of education and reduced adult earnings. Other risks includea higher incidence of unemployment and welfare dependence, teenagepregnancy, involvement with the police and courts, and alcohol and drugaddiction (see adjacent column for full list).Risks and consequences of inequality in the OECDEfforts to prevent children from falling behind are right in principle,as they meet the basic tenet of the Convention that every child hasthe right to develop to her or his full potential. But they are also rightin practice; based on hundreds of studies in OECD countries, thecosts of young children and adolescents falling behind are grave,and include the greater likelihood of:• low birthweight• parental stress and lack of parental time• chronic stress for the child, possibly linked to long-term healthproblems and reduced memory capacity• food insecurity and inadequate nutrition• poor health outcomes, including obesity, diabetes, chronicasthma, anaemia and cardiovascular disease• more frequent visits to hospitals and emergency wards• impaired cognitive development• lower educational achievement• lower rates of return on investments in education• reduced linguistic ability• lower skills and aspirations• lower productivity and adult earnings• unemployment and welfare dependence• behavioural difficulties• involvement with the police and courts• teenage pregnancy• alcohol and drug dependence.Source: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Report Card 9, The childrenleft behind – A league table of inequality in child well-being in theworld’s rich countries, UNICEF IRC, Florence, 2010, p. 26.Many families succeed in overcoming the odds and raising children who donot fall into any of the above categories. But Report Card 9 demonstratesthat, on average, children who fall far behind their peers in their early yearsare likely to find themselves at ‘a marked and measurable disadvantage’ –through no fault of their own. And a society that aspires to fairness ’cannotbe unconcerned that accidents of birth should so heavily circumscribe theopportunities of life’.Principle and practice argue as one, concludes Report Card 9. Preventingmillions of individual children from falling behind in different dimensionsof their lives will not only better fulfil their rights, but also enhance theeconomic and social prospects of their nations. Conversely, when largenumbers of children and young people are allowed to fall well below thestandards enjoyed by their peers, both they and their societies pay aheavy price.See References, page 78.30THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2011